S-Clarke

Amar Jemal. Cue meltdowns on that one Eliott Ward - another set of meltdowns. John Halls - weird one, I think he'd even had his medical.

Oh yeah, good shout on Perisic, keep forgetting they signed him. So yeah....can't see anything in the Spurs stuff being a goer. The £10-15m 'offers' from Everton were laughable, we're not bundled into a corner as he still has 3 years on his contract. Feels like agents playing the media here.

I think their priority is Djed Spence for £20m. Unless they seem him as a LB...as they've put Sergio Regulion up for sale weirdly.

I'd imagine it's something like that. Look at Ronaldo as another example, missed the first day of pre-season due to 'personal family reasons', but we all know why it was. Low and behold he still isn't there. Sometimes I wish clubs would just be honest with their fans and stop trying to fluff up stories.

Oh yeah, he was back in the form last year for Lyon. Just didn't quite happen for him the year before, it was a weird one (i think that put off the big clubs, as he was touted to all of those before that move)

Last year of his contract, some potential cheapness to be had here. A few years ago this guy was on the cusp of being an elite striker, but it never quite happened for whatever reason. Had a miserable time in spain. On his day he is deadly though.

As other's have said, the only reason is because Villa already have multiple number 10's. Why would they need him? They're paying bucket loads for their existing ones as well, so they're not going to become bench players overnight.

I don't think he's over rated at all, all we have to compare him against is Bednarek and Stephens - so by default he's class. Technically he's a very good player, he smells danger and always seems to be in the right place at the right time. He tailed off last season and I'm sure both himself and the club want to understand why that is, but when he was on it he was unbeatable against the best teams in this league. The guy is our best CB and we need to be building a defence around his sorts, not Bednarek.

I don't think Chelsea really know what they're doing at the moment, I said the other day that the club just feels a little chaotic. Their new owner desperate to make a point, but he's never done football before and it's kinda showing.

City right back we are interested in, one of their youth/EDS squad (although he's been on loan in the top tier of french football)

Welcome to modern football? Happens all the time. You gauge a players interest, put some details down on a table for them, if they're receptive then you go and offer the club the money they want so you can make it official.

Chelsea are a strange club. I'm not really sure Ake is up to the level they need, he's a decent squad player for a Top 6 team but no more than that I don't think

yeah probably, it's been a sad few years really.

From where we were before it's investing heavily. This will be around £45-50m spent without a sale and I cannot remember when we last did that. In comparison with other sides, no, it's not huge, but we're not other sides and we're Southampton - and for us this is huge.

Pretty much what I expect to happen. We tried to do this sell to buy model when we had nobodies to sell before, that's why we ended up with so much shit as we just couldn't generate enough dollar. We now have ownership in who realise that, have provided the initial investment to allow us to build that team for the future which will generate those fee's further down the line.

There is certainly a different approach to absolutely everything this season. Coaches, recruitment, pre-season, quality of opposition. I imagine the better quality opposition is once again down to money? We have to pay a fee to the likes of Monaco and Villarreal I'm sure.

He's good enough to start for us tomorrow, so it makes me wonder if we'll start the season with KWP at left wing back and this guy at RB.

Kabore is quality. Top league experience too (through loan deals). For a cover player that would be an incredible addition. I really, really like what we're doing.

Yeah, this one isn't happening. Everton don't have the money to make big signings on proven players, as someone aluded to above they are in a similar position to where we were with Gao, having to sell before they buy, but even still the selling doesn't directly equate to them being able to reinvest every penny of that. They're in a little bit of a mess.

I do see where you are coming from, I think for clubs like us spending money in those regions does look a bit scary and is always going to be a huge risk. In my honest opinion I'd probably only pay a package of £20m for him with 50k wages tops. (12-15m up front). I'd be comfortable with that as I feel that's where he's proven himself, he still has a lot of development to do and I'd suggest £30m and 100k p/w is what you'd pay for a finished product, or certainly someone a lot more refined. He's clearly got some pretty unique attributes. He's powerful, strong, very quick, he's a tidy finisher when he keeps his head. I have no doubts that he's going to be a good player but I would just be uncomfortable paying that much for someone who isn't there quite yet.

Good shout actually, but that's prob weather dependent and that time of the year is unpredictable. I did assume this summer would be the gap they took, but I did forget we were hosting a few Euro games...! Not sure we'd have enough time.

I can't see us getting Broja, honestly think that ship sailed. Just feels like agent chatter. The new ownership at Chelsea feels a bit chaotic, not sure if it's just me who feels that.

Good news, I'd say this is a very ambitious appointment by us. It's obviously quite exciting for Joe to have influence over youth recruitment for a first team, not just an academy. He clearly has tons and tons of contacts all over the world, some of the players brought into City's EDS have been quality.

I guess what I meant by blowing the Tino trumpet is that we keep expecting all these young players to be like Tino. Martin himself has come out and said ''we're looking for more Tino's''. I agree that the approach has opened the door to us getting some of the best young players, but it's still somewhat risky as Tino was a bit of a freak.

I know what you mean, and that's why this window is a bit conflicting for me in the sense of being exciting and somewhat risky. I think Aribo will add some know how, he's not an unknown youth player and possibly a more experienced striker and full back cover will plug those holes. The club did blow the Tino trumpet a lot but like you say, not every young player is going to be a Tino as in hitting the ground from day 1. There is potentially an adjustment phase for the majority, I'd say Tino is a bit of a freak in that sense.